[133] The arms of Sagan were an angel upon a golden background.
The typhus fever which is devastating Upper Silesia threatens to appear here, though we hope that it may be less deadly than it is upon the other side of Breslau. The extremes of want and hunger have been more successfully met here than in other parts of the province. In Upper Silesia this disease has caused dreadful ravages. The doctors have succumbed to it, and were it not for the Brothers of Charity sent by the Prince Bishop, the people would be without relief. Four thousand orphans are wandering about. Mgr. Diepenbrock, following the example of Mgr. de Quélen after the ravages of the cholera in 1833, proposes to open a place of refuge for them to which the Catholics of the province are to devote their time and energy. The plan has been elaborated here.
_Weimar, February 18, 1848._--We have had a succession of festivities here in honour of the birthday of the reigning Grand Duchess. The day before yesterday an excellent performance was given of an opera which has made much stir in Germany, called _Martha_, by the composer Flotow. The libretto and the music are very pretty, and the orchestra was admirably conducted by Liszt. He is Capellmeister to the Weimar Court, with definite leave of absence for nine months in the year. Of this he recently took advantage to make a tour in Constantinople and Odessa, in the course of which he made much money. This evening he is to play to us privately at the house of the Grand Duchess, after Prince Pückler-Muskau has read some extracts dealing with his stay with Mehemet Ali. There is to be previously a little dinner at the young Court of the Hereditary Prince. Attempts are made here to cherish the sacred fire of art and literature, which for sixty years or more has gained for Weimar the title of the Athens of Germany. The Grand Duchess, in order to perpetuate the tradition, has devoted a certain number of rooms in the castle to the memory of poets, philosophers, and artists who have made the district famous. Fresco paintings recall the various subjects of their works, and the rooms are decorated with busts, portraits, views of the historical scenes and curious sites, and pieces of furniture of different periods. The Grand Duchess enjoys a considerable private fortune, which she expends very nobly upon charitable foundations, and in the decoration of her residences. For a hundred years the Court of Weimar has been very well divided among various Princesses; the grandmother of the present Grand Duke was the patroness of Schiller, of Goethe and Wieland, and under her patronage the classical literature of Germany was able to flourish; her daughter-in-law, the mother of the present Grand Duke, was the only Princess of Germany who was able to overawe Napoleon. She saved the kingdom for her husband, the Duke, by her courage and firmness. M. de Talleyrand often took pleasure in describing the scenes in which this Princess confronted the conqueror. The daughter-in-law of the present Grand Duchess, the Princess of the Low Countries, is also clever and well educated; she has a charming voice, great tact, and a simple manner which increases the effect of her good qualities; everything shows that she will be worthy to continue the tradition of the remarkable Princesses who have reigned over the Court of Weimar. Among them one might almost include the Duchess d'Orléans, as her mother was a sister of the reigning Grand Duke.